Buying a home is probably the biggest purchase you’ll ever make. You’ve saved up for years, found the perfect house, and you’re ready to sign on the dotted line. But have you thought about title insurance? If you’re like most people, you might be wondering: “What’s title insurance, and why do I need it?” The answer is simple: it protects your home and your money from problems you never saw coming.

Even as climbing mortgage rates raised financing costs for borrowers, the share of active listings that became newly pending hit their highest levels observed in March over the past five years, according to newly released data from Zillow. The 4.6% yearly and nearly 30% monthly increase in newly pending listings was the second-largest monthly total since August 2022, the listings platform reported on Monday.

America’s battered office market is holding a fire sale, featuring some buildings marked down by more than 90%. In Chicago, real-estate developer Marc Calabria bought a 485,000-square-foot office building for $4 million. The building sold for $68.1 million a decade ago.

The CNBC Housing Market Survey asks a group of top real estate agents about local market conditions and buy/seller sentiment. In the first quarter of 2025, buyers were more concerned about the economy and mortgages rates than they were about home prices, according to respondents.

Washington State regulators are proposing a hefty financial penalty against Newrez after charging the company with numerous mortgage servicing violations in response to an investigation into more than 125 consumer complaints. The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions seeks to fine the lender and servicer nearly $4.2 million for repeated violations of consumer laws in the five-year period between 2021 and 2026.